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Author: Tobias Thienel

My time as a guest blogger with Opinio Juris comes to an end today. I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity to post here, and to enter into discussions with the commenters. It therefore only remains for me to give my sincere thanks to the regular contributors for inviting me, and to the many commenters for their remarks, additions and corrections...

For my last post here at Opinio Juris, I propose to tap into what knowledge I have of my home jurisdiction, Germany, on an issue common to US and German law. (No apologies here for the use of comparative material in constitutional interpretation.)
That issue is in the context of the domestic effect of international treaties, and more particularly in the...

‘Torture is an unqualified evil.’ So it is. Statements obtained by the use of torture are inadmissible in evidence. Again, that’s very true. Article 15 of the UN Convention against Torture says as much. So does § 948r (b) of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, in words taken almost verbatim from the Torture Convention. But what of cruel, inhuman...

I explained on Monday how the House of Lords in R (Al-Jedda) v. Secretary of State for Defence [2007] UKHL 58, [2008] 2 WLR 31, came to decide that the Multinational Force in Iraq was not acting for the UN. But that holding alone did not put paid to the respondent’s arguments drawn from SC Res. 1546. The Secretary of...

I am very grateful to all the regular contributors here at Opinio Juris for having me, and to Kevin for his kind introduction.
To begin with, I would like to offer some thoughts on the question set out above. At first glance, it seems utterly absurd. But exactly that question was recently considered by the House of Lords (if, obviously, by...